Clemson, who's your ACC daddy? It's SEC-esque FSU

Certainly not the Florida State Seminoles, who just happen to be the defending ACC Champions.

At least that's how I remember it.

But you surely wouldn't know it by listening to all the talking heads and reading all of the preseason magazines.

They all claim Climpson — the overrated, underachieving program that has won just one ACC title in the past two decades — is the team to beat in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Sports Illustrated, Lindy's, Athlon, The Sporting News, USA Today; they all have Climpson winning the ACC.

"Offense wins in 2013, and the Tigers are the best in the ACC on that front," writes Lindy's College Football Preview. "Clemson runs ACC table."

This is an absolute insult to coach Jimbo Fisher's Seminoles, who last year won the league for the first time in seven seasons and served notice that they are ready to dominate the ACC like they did during Bobby Bowden's heyday in the 1990s.

You want to know why Florida State will likely win the ACC again this year . . . and next year . . . and the year after that? Because the Seminoles are not really an ACC team. They are a SEC team that happens to play in the ACC.

It's no secret that Fisher is a Nick Saban disciple who has built his program at FSU in the Saban mold — with discipline, defense and downhill running. Not this newfangled, no-huddle, no-defense style of pinball that Climpson plays. Fisher, like friend and fellow Saban disciple Will Muschamp at Florida, is building his program with SEC-forged steel and concrete; not flimsy ACC gimmicks and gadgets.

As Muschamp likes to say, "The SEC is a line-of-scrimmage league." And if you can't compete along the line of scrimmage, you're going to get destroyed. This philosophy, more than any other factor, is why the SEC has won seven straight national titles.

Here's all you need to know: Saban's Alabama defense was ranked No. 1 in the nation last year. Fisher's FSU defense was ranked No. 2. And Dabo Swinney's Climpson defense was ranked No. 63. The year prior, FSU's defense was ranked No. 4 while Climpson's was 71st. Two seasons ago, when Climpson won its only ACC title in the last 21 years, the Tigers went to the Orange Bowl and got destroyed 70-33 by West Virginia.

Climpson's worst nightmare was realized last year when Florida State finally broke through and won its first ACC title of the Fisher era. And, believe me, it won't be the last. As Fisher explained after winning the championship last year, this era of Seminoles, at long last, knows what it takes to be a champion.

"This is huge," Fisher said then. "We've now got over the hump and won our first championship. You've got to win a championship before you can ever say, 'We're back!' Everybody wants you to win a national championship. You've gotta win a conference championship before you can win a national championship. . . . You have to keep climbing the ladder to get to where you want to go."

Fisher traditionally has a rule — no hats worn indoors at the FSU football complex. This offseason, though, he relaxed the rule — but only for those players who wore their ACC Championship hats.

"I wanted them to keep those hats on to feel that sense of pride and accomplishment," Fisher says now. "I wanted that joy to sink in. You just feel different when you win a championship. It's hard to explain until you get there. When you win a championship, you'll have a pride about you that you didn't have before. It's sort of like having a child. Your priorities change."

Last season, Fisher's Seminoles experienced the birth of their first child, er, championship and now they want another . . . and another . . . and another. They don't just want one child, they want a whole brood of 'em.

Step aside, Climpson.

Big Daddy Seminole is back home where he belongs.

mbianchi@tribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @BianchiWrites. Listen to his radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on 740 AM.